Fire and Ice
by Rae
Summary: An unknown infection sends crewmembers to emotional extremes.


FIRE AND ICE  
by Rae [artemis@northco.net][1]

Benjamin Sisko smiled as he put the heaped dish on the table. His guests inhaled deeply of the fragrant aroma that rose from the small confections. "What are they, Benjamin?" Dax asked.

"Edaian spice puddings, made with genuine Edaian spices."

"Where did you get them?" Bashir sounded perplexed. "The Edaians refuse to trade with anybody."

"You remember the science vessel that passed through a week ago? The Captain gave them to me." 

They were delicious. 

* * *

The next afternoon Kira came into the infirmary, complaining of a sore throat. Bashir scanned her, but detected only slight damage. "Been yelling at many ministers lately, Major?" 

She looked sheepish. "Maybe one or two." Julian laughed, and gave her a spray-on medication to use. He released her with an injunction to give her larynx a break. 

Then a few minutes later, Sisko entered with similar symptoms. Shrugging off a nasty suspicion, Julian casually asked what happened to him. "Arguing with Admiral Jenssen." Julian laughed, although it sounded a little forced, gave Sisko the same spray as Kira and the same instructions. 

Then his own throat started to ache. He was just putting the spray back in a drawer when Dax entered, hoarse and sore. The nasty suspicion crept up behind him and clubbed him. He gave her a broad-spectrum antibiotic, a spray to use, and took a blood sample. He told her it was just to make sure, etc, but he was worried about this disturbing trend. After she had gone he took another blood sample from himself and started running tests. 

* * *

Jadzia Dax slept poorly that night. She couldn't get comfortable. Irritably she pushed herself out of bed and ordered a Black Hole from the replicator. It was two in the morning. She donned her uniform and went out into the deserted corridor. 

She wandered the station restlessly for almost an hour before she realised how uncharacteristic her own behaviour was. She paused by a window, gazing out into the depths of space. From there she could see only a visiting ship. Filled with a sudden resolve, she went to find a window where she could see into the depths of space. 

When she walked by the Infirmary, she saw Julian was in. She stopped by to see him. "Go away," he said bluntly. He was staring at something on his desk console screen. Ignoring his instruction, she moved around to where she could see it. He steadfastly ignored her in response, a surly expression on his face. Julian was working on something, she didn't know what. She was curious, but annoyed with Julian for his rudeness. She was about to speak when Julian blanked the screen, slowly getting to his feet. He looked her in the eye and spoke softly and menacingly. "I thought I told you to go away." 

"I didn't feel like it," she responded, a challenge in her eyes. Julian smiled a cruel, sardonic smile and raised one hand. She prepared herself for the blow, tensing for combat. Her smile matched his. They stood only inches apart. Jadzia looked him in the eye; Julian struck. His blow never reached its target as Jadzia, responding with lightning reflexes, caught his wrist and twisted. He dropped to his knees in pain. Jadzia rose her other hand to strike back. It was at that point Kira entered. She took in the cruel smile on Jadzia's face and the vicious, agonised hatred on Julian's in a glance and rushed in to separate the combatants. 

"Out of my way, Kira," Jadzia said, her voice ringing with exultation and a frightening hunger. "He's mine, and I'll go through you if I have to." She reached out and grabbed a laser scalpel, but in the moment before she activated it, a voice penetrated the fog of emotion in her mind. It was a memory; Benjamin's voice, mimicing the strangely gentle tones of Joran Dax's. _My strength is within you, Jadzia._ She summoned the control she had learned from the surges af anger that had at first gripped her when Joran's memories began to emerge. She lowered the scalpel, but the tension and hostility still gripped her. 

Kira rounded angrily on Dax. "And just what do you two think you were doing?" Dax thought she'd never seen her so furious. Both she and Julian shook their heads numbly. Bashir was backed up against the wall, while Dax was pressed against the desk by Kira's towering wrath. At that moment Sisko entered, realising the reality of the situation at a glance. 

"Is nobody sleeping tonight?" he asked angrily. Kira glared at him, but then relaxed marginally. Dax took several deep breaths to calm herself. 

* * *

The next day, Dax, Bashir, Sisko and Kira were all several hours late to work. Julian found it incredibly difficult to concentrate that day. About dinnertime Jadzia entered the infirmary and found Julian bouncing a ball against the wall. 

"I was going to invite you to dinner," she said drily, "but I see you're obviously hard at work." Julian grinned. 

"Let's go." 

The ate at the Klingon restaurant on the Promenade before going to Quark's so Jadzia could show him her Camelot program. Afterwards Julian walked with her back to her quarters. 

"I'm really very sorry about last night, Julian," Jadzia said as they stood at her door.

"Actually, I have a theory about that..."

"Tell me tomorrow. Breakfast in the Replimat?"

"Great." 

Jadzia leaned forward to kiss his cheek - but no, that was wrong, because she wasn't kissing his cheek she was kissing the corner of his mouth and that was such a strange place to kiss a friend! but now she had stopped that, she was kissing his lips and that was wrong too but it felt so good - 

- and now she was pulling him inside her quarters and tugging at his uniform and that was wrong so wrong and there was a reason but she couldn't remember what it was and he was pulling at her clothes and now oh gods this was wrong but she couldn't stop, she couldn't stop... 

Jadzia Dax abandoned her last attempts to stay afloat and slipped down to drown in the sudden sea of emotion that had engulfed her. 

The next morning, Julian awoke to surroundings that were both familiar and unfamiliar. Dax's quarters, he thought idly. He must have fallen asleep after they - what? What the hell was he doing here? 

Memory rushed back. Julian's head snapped round and he stared at the sleeping Trill beside him. It wasn't a dream... 

Sapphire eyes opened and regarded him steadily. 

"Good morning, Julian." Jadzia was relieved to find that the control which had so utterly deserted her the previous night was back in full force. She smiled at her - friend? lover? He didn't look as calm as she knew she did, but why should he? She didn't feel as calm as she knew she looked and he didn't have as much practice at this kind of control. 

She laughed. "Well, Julian, we did agree to have breakfast together." She was relieved to see him grin in response. 

Later, after they'd showered and dressed, they sat down to breakfast. "So what is you theory on the other night?" Jadzia asked. Julian lit up at this new, relatively safe topic for conversation. 

"I think that you, me, Major Kira and Captain Sisko are all suffering from some kind of disease that causes complete loss of emotional control. That's why the other night." 

"And perhaps last night?" Did he wince? "Julian, relax. If that's the reason there's no reason why last night should affect our friendship. Think of it as if we'd just played a few rounds of racquetball." He laughed.

"Right. Racquetball."

"And we enjoyed it."

"I know I did," he said drily. "Anyway, the only thing I can't figure out is where the four of us caught it." 

"The four of us... dinner with Benjamin?" Julian considered this and nodded. 

"Yes. I think I should definitely work on it. I'll ask Miles to examine the replicators, and start analysing blood samples of the four of us to begin with." 

"I'll tell Benjamin about it and see if I can get a few samples of the genuine food he used." 

"Good idea. But first, I think we should try and develop some kind of mood stabiliser while we're both still rational." 

"Yes. Why are we? Considering how we felt last night I wonder that we're not wrestling on the bed right now." 

"Could be... we've overloaded? Think about it. We hit the utter extreme of anger, and then we hit dead calm. It's all started by the least trigger, too. When you came into the Infirmary, you broke my train of thought, which irritated me slightly. But that annoyed you, and it went into a feedback loop that peaked at blood lust." 

"And last night, an evening of friendly relaxation, the beginnings of an equally friendly kiss on the cheek which turned into a kiss on the mouth..." 

"And another feedback loop." 

"Let's go. I figure we have a couple more hours of rational thought before our minds start playing tricks on us." 

Jadzia ran into an unexpected snag. Benjamin had not had the emotional purge she and Julian had had and rocketed to sudden paranoia that she was trying to steal from him, and then that she was going to mutiny. She dreaded to think what would have happened if she had not been calm and controlled but on a hair-trigger to violent emotional excesses. Mind you, after last night she was beginning to think that violent emotional excesses weren't all that bad... 

Blushing slightly, she hurried to take the little containers of edible oddments to the Infirmary. 

Kira resisted Julian's extracting a blood sample. In the end Julian had to have one of his Bajoran nurses pretend to come to Kira's aid and jab her with enough sedative to knock out an Algorian mammoth. Kira crumpled to the floor. "Is this really necessary, doctor?" the nurse asked. Julian's thoughts flicked back to the events of the previous night. 

"You have no idea." 

That evening, tranked on enough mood stabilisers to blank out all emotion, the senior staff met in Sisko's office. Most of them, anyway. Odo and O'Brien had elected to be absent, claiming that their input was irrelevant to the problem. Jadzia suspected they were afraid to go near their co-workers. 

Julian made his report. "I have good news, bad news and wonderful news. The good news is, it is a disease and I've traced it. It's a disease common to Edaian plants, such as the spice from whence came our dessert the other night. The Edaians are immune to it and it increases the flavour of the spices, so they actively cultivate it. The Edaian captain meant us no harm, I am sure. However, its effect upon other species is as we have seen. The bad news is it's incurable." So numbed were they that nobody reacted. "The wonderful news is that it's non-contagious, and that by tomorrow evening the disease should have run its course and everything should be back to normal." But as he said it, he felt Jadzia's eyes on him and knew that things would never be truly normal again. 

Several days later, Julian sat alone in the Replimat. He hadn't thought he'd react this way to having his favourite fantasy come true, but that was it; it was a fantasy, he didn't truly want it to happen. He wanted his friend back. He sighed. 

"Hey stranger!" He glanced up and suppressed a groan. It was Jadzia. He smiled instead. Jadzia grinned. "I thought we might have a go at finishing that Camelot program." Julian forced himself to feel enthusiastic. This was his Jadzia, his friend, and back the way they should be. Weren't they? 

After the program, he walked her to her quarters. "Deja vu," he said, smiling. The evening had reassured him their friendship was still there. Jadzia laughed. "Good night, Julian." She leaned forward to kiss his cheek and stopped. He had seemed so distant... 

Julian smiled in understanding, and kissed her cheek. She fought to maintain her control and hide the way her breath caught at the contact. She smiled, and stepped through into her quarters. Once through, she sank to the floor and leaned against the closed door, crying quietly. 

Julian stood in the empty corridor, frowning. Just for a moment, it had seemed as if Jadzia had leaned into his kiss. He shook himself - he was imagining things. He turned and walked towards his quarters with a bounce in his stride. 

THE END 

   [1]: mailto:artemis@northco.net



End file.
